Le Grand Fooding

Went to the Le Grand Fooding event on ⁹⁄₂₃ at the Brooklyn Flea.
I’m going to say for the price you pay, it sucked. Sucked. SUCKED. There was only one excellent dish — and it was a slice of pizza. The next best dish was a sausage sandwich, that was the size of a slider.
But let me backtrack a bit — for the low low price of $ 65/​ticket, you get 6 tasting tickets, and 2 drink tickets. Let me emphasize «TASTING».
Dish 1 — Salmon. I’d say I got a 2oz slice, and it was cold. Maybe it was meant to be served cold? Sure didn’t taste like it.
Dish 2 — Fish taco — One fish taco. Good, I suppose, but only a taste.
Dish 3 — Sausage sandwich — Second best dish of the day, shame it was the size of half of my palm.
Dish 4 — Slice of Pizza — It was quite fantastic, and the line proved it. It was the only one with a line that extended until the event was over. The mix was really good — shame that when I got to the front of the line, they only had one of the pizzas (out of a possible 3 different ones), so I had to settle. The serving size was a sixth of a 7″ pie.
Dish 5 — grilled sausage with sauce. This was the biggest abomination. The tasting was probably a quarter of a normal sized sausage, with a dab of sauce. Give me a break. I wanted to slap them.
Dish 6 — cake by a french chef — very nice light flavor, that somehow still hit you. I’d say this was a hit.
2 Drinks were Jameson based — not my fancy, but they were basically on par.
All in all, I’ll never go back to another one of these things, as I’d much rather pay $ 130 for a real meal somewhere where I’m not standing in line and finishing the taste before I take 3 steps.

This is an awesome concept on paper. Bring talented chefs from the west and east coast into one cool creative setting. Except the website failed to mentioned that it was a carnival style setup, where you have to line up for each cooking booth. We got there 15 minutes early as suggested by website and proceeded to wait an hour in line. Of course, once you’re in, you still have to wait for food. So we ended up waiting 45 minutes for a scallop and a glass of champagne. ONE scallop. Granted, it was a decent scallop, prepped by the Commis chef. The lines for the other foodies also average 40 – 60 minute each. By this time, it’s halfway through the event and my bud and I are f’in starving. So naturally, we fill ourself on $ 2.50 pizza slices back in the city.
If you must go to this event, get in line hella early, rush all the food carts before everyone else gets in and then just soak up the moment. Otherwise, forget it. Unless you like waiting in lines and paying $ 50 for a scallop.

Absolutely amazing. Had a great time. Great food, great music, great alcohol, great people, great atmosphere. Basically, what I’m trying to say is that it was… great!

Lets just say I would fly out to NYC in a heartbeat to come again.
You can see more on my site :)

My favorite dish was not from a NY chef O_​O Don’t judge. There is good reason behind this…
Last Friday after work, I went straight to LIC for Le Grand Fooding event. This was a very wise move because we got there half hour before doors opened (7PM for non VIP holders) and were only a few feet away from entrance. It didn’t take long before the line wrapped around the block. Imagine a mass of eager, excited and hungry people lined up. Getting anxious as 7PM came closer. Tick tock tick tock. Once in awhile you get a huge whiff of freshly baked dough. Ahhhhhhh! It was the ultimate torture. So close yet so far away. Seriously.
Once the line got moving, everyones spirits were on a high. I for sure was cheesin =D Upon entering we were handed 4 different colored stubs to use for the night. Yellow for Veuve Clicquot, red for a pizza with wine pairing, blue for a Belvedere cocktail from the guys of PDT and a white one for a Belvedere cocktail from Erick Castro of Rickhouse in SF. Let the awesome night begin!
We were greeted by a strong smell of cheese which as if on auto-​pilot, made us line up for Chef April Bloomfield’s offering of braised beef and onion pie topped with a robust bleu cheese. It was a perfect way to kick off the night– a brief exchange of words with the chef and a bite of warm straight off the oven mini pie. It was reminiscent of an onion soup in pie form with braised beef as bonus. Yum!!!
On to the next one… as I stuff my face with said pie, I headed straight for the next line. Now if you have read my previous reviews, you’d have noticed how much I appreciate swine. I’m kinda sorta in love with it. And now I’m kinda sorta in love with Chef Laurence Jossel and his wood grilled pork with tomato jam.
Cassy: Hello chef. May I please have the fatty pieces?
Chef: You’re a woman after my own heart.
*Swoons* Need I say more? I had a generous portion of wood grilled fatty pork with smoked tomato jam on garlic bread. It was succulent, flavorful and absolutely delicious. The jam was a nice touch. It was a little sweet and complimented the pork well. This dish made dining for a good cause 100 times better. Thank you chef for putting love into your food. He served each dish with a smile.
We also got to try a number of other dishes and drinks:
— 2 vegetable dishes from Chef Jeremy Fox and a memorable lavender infused sugar dusted almonds.
— grilled scallops with sea salt and fennel seeds on greens from Chef Syhabout. We had second servings =D
— flute of Veuve Clicquot
— David Chang’s beet chips with goat cheese mousse, tapioca and granola. It was light and totally unexpected.
— Squid pizza and vegetable pizza paired with cote du rhone
— Pickled cucumbers with shaved lamb tongue from Torrisi.
— Parkside Fizz cocktail from PDT was very refreshing.
All in all it was a successful night. I ate well without waiting for more than 10 minutes each dish. I’d do it again, in a heartbeat.

In this all out showdown between NY and SF to determine who has the best food, I was pleasantly surprised. $ 50 for a regular ticket gained you entrance into a world of unlimited food, waiting in lines with no Fast Passes, excellent espresso from Nespresso, S. Pellegrino sparkling water flavor pairings, and some of the best alcohol around. And all proceeds going to Action Against Hunger. Hi-​five!
The decorations were beautiful and modern and it was a relatively beautiful and warm fall night. MOMA PS1 was an excellent venue for Le Grand Fooding. The event coordinators oversold the event IMO, but after people started to leave, most of the lines weren’t too bad. I didn’t get to try everything, but I still had a delightful time. I won’t break down every dish that I tried, but here were some of the highlights for me:
NEW YORK CITY
Chef Dan Barber (of Blue Hill) served up an unlisted dish. I’m unsure as to what the exact components were, but it was good, albeit it lacked some of that wow! factor. Pulino’s Chef Nate Appleman offered beef cooked in beef fat over an anchovy crostone that I managed to sample two of before they ran out. Excellent!
What I kept going back for and will probably crave was from db Bistro Moderne. Chef Laurent Kalkotour created hte Camemburger DB especially for Le Fooding. The ground sirloin burger slider hid a surprise in the center — a delicious camembert cheese — and when you bit into it, the burger oozed just enough to really enjoy the perfectly (rarely) cooked patty with the perfect sear. This was definitely one of the more filling dishes. They were also handing out the recipe card for this, which I shall endeavor to recreate someday when I’m feeling particularly adventurous and have guinea pi — — I mean /​friends/​over.
SAN FRANCISCO
My favorite, and therefore the best, dish was served up by Frances from SF. For the full duration of the night, the line spiraled around the whole beach sand area for Chef Melissa Perello’s suckling pig confit with summer fruit mostarda. Behind the counter area, Perello and her sous chefs visibly worked hard to maintain a high standard of quality in each dish that went out. Although just helping out his friend for the event, Christophe Hille of Northern Spy Food Co (in NYC) was gracious enough to chat for a short time while he was cooking to the side.
ALCOHOL
Okay. Let’s get to it. Despite what some of my co-​conspirators may claim, I do remember how much I had to drink. Even with the extra tickets that Jimmy C handed to me. (Thanks, Jimmy!) If I hadn’t eaten my money’s worth, I definitely drank my money’s worth by the end of the night. And so. more for my memory than for anyone reading this, a breakdown of the alcohol that I managed to score:
— 2 flutes of excellent champagne by Veuve Clicquot
— 2 Belvedere experiences with the white tickets
— 1 Rhôné Valley wine (& pizza pairing)
— 2 Belvedere experiences with the blue tickets
— 1 more Belvedere experience with another white ticket
— 1 large swig from a bottle of Belvedere that the kick ass bartender at the end of the night opened. He wouldn’t give me an unopened bottle to take home though. :(Boo. I should have showed more skin. (Kidding!)
— 2 smaller swigs from the bottle of Belvedere
Umm… holy bacon. How was I not falling over plastered?